Chapter 23: Joy to the world

When I woke up, it was dark, so very dark.

I could only see the stars in the sky and the deserted plane of ground in front of me…Wait…What?

I suddenly became aware of the fact I wasn't in New York City anymore, in fact I was in the middle of a freaking desert!

I suddenly became aware of the fact, there was a light source behind me, I sat up and quickly spun around to see a huge roaring bonfire. And Adam was standing over it, staring at me with a mixture of curiosity and concern. He was playing with a Yo-Yo almost absent mindedly as he stared at me.

"Adam?"

"Yes, Max." he asked with a soft-velvety voice.

"Why are we in the middle of a desert?"

"The city is a little…dangerous for you right now."

I suddenly noticed the parked gleaming black motorcycle behind him.

"You drove here?"

"We drove here." He corrected me,

"You're too heavy to fly across the country." He said, with a smirk on his face, still playing with the yo-yo.

"Adam…" I said, calmly. I was afraid he might have lost it.

"Hmm…?"

"Why, are we half-way across the country?"

"You have a price on your head in New York, and you're not back to full strength."

"Ah. And you didn't think to ask me?"

"You were kind of unconscious. So Fang and I talked it over and we decided that they'd hold down the fort back in Manhattan; and you and I would head to go see your mom."

"Mom?"

"Yeah, Fang told me about them."

"You're not mad are you?" he asked, a cautious look on his face.

The odd thing was, I wasn't mad. I never was mad, I guessed that it was because I could go anywhere with Adam, and I'd be just fine. Deep in the back of my head, a little voice kept yelling at me about the danger our flocks were in. But I shushed it down, any excuse for me and Adam to be alone.

"No…Not at all." I said, almost numbly.

I stood up and I was suddenly hit with a wave of dizziness and nausea, my legs shook and failed. I fell to the ground only to be caught by Adam.

I stared confused and surprised up at him,

"Geez, I'm going to have to keep a closer eye on you."

I felt my shoulder ache, and sting with pain.

I gritted my teeth and tried to ignore it as Adam lowered me to the ground, and sat down next to me.

"Shoulder hurt?" he asked,

I nodded; I never would have admitted pain willingly to anyone except Fang or Adam.

Adam pulled something out of his jacket; it was plain white pill bottle.

"What's that?"

"Painkillers." He stated flatly,

"No, no, no. I've had valium before and that ended very badly. I swore to myself, no drugs."

"Ha, Valium. That's for babies, this is vicodin." He said, laughing sarcastically.

"No way"

"It'll make your shoulder feel better." My shoulder was really beginning to hurt.

"What kind of side effects?" I asked wearily,

"It won't make you act all goofy, like valium."

"And it'll stop the pain?"

"Yes."

I was still cautious,

"Who prescribed it?"

"Me."

I glared at him, and he smiled guiltily.

"Now your stealing narcotics?" I asked, angrily.

"Look, I'll take one." He swallowed the white pill,

I watched him curiously.

He looked at me and smiled, "See, and now please take it. I hate to see you in pain."

"Not as much as I hate being in it." I said, as I took the pill from him and swallowed it.

"You have no idea." He said.

I think I fell asleep in his arms.

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Max's POV

We had decided that driving all the way to Arizona would take too much time, so we found a truck that was heading for New York and would arrive when we did and we put the bike on it and took off.

We were flying over a city in north Colorado while it snowed all around us, when I heard a noise, with my awesome raptor hearing. It was a scream, an ear piercing scream of pain. I look downwards at the maze of alleys, and was able to pick several moving figures. One was a woman, who looked like she was in labor. And the others where men and they didn't look as they wanted to congratulate her.

"Adam! Look, that woman!"

He looked down, and sighed; "am I going to have to deal with your messiah complex forever?"

I rolled my eyes, and dove spiraling towards the alleys below. And as I neared, I noticed that the woman was ahead of the men, but not by much.

I pulled up just as I swooshed over her head, and came to a screeching stop.

She screamed and fell to the ground, I immediately offered my hand.

"Who are you?" she stammered,

"I'm Max, and I'm-"

"Your guardian Angels." says Adam's voice from behind her.

I pulled her to her feet, and we began to run.

We sped down the alleyway, out into any empty street, with a gray sedan.

I heard the crunching of gravel and saw Adam pushing the car to cover up the alley entrance.

"Help." He growled, and I leapt over to help him push the car.

We got it into place, and Adam ran to the side of the car, and with my help we flipped the car so it would cover the entrance.

She screamed again,

"We need to get her to a hospital." I yelled,

"Right." Adam growled, and we ran over to her sides.

And with a great whoosh! We were airborne.

"Where's the nearest hospital!?!" Adam asked,

"I have no idea!" I yelled,

"How far along is she?" Adam asked, as we flapped our wings in unison.

"I don't know I don't have x-ray vision!"

"Check!" he ordered,

"How?" I screamed back

"Look!"

"Where!" I yelled in panic, and even with all the chaos Adam was still able to give me a patronizing look. I smiled sheepishly.

"Where the baby comes out."

"Where's that?" I asked, not really having any idea.

"Seriously?" he asked stunned,

"Didn't you ever watch an after school special?" he patronized.

"Where?!?"

He gaped at me, before turning his head. To look under her skirt,

"What are you doing?!?" I yelled in disbelief, how he could be so…so… I don't have a word for it. He rolled his eyes;

"The baby's crowning. We need to land."

We flew down towards the nearest building, I left Adam to hold her as I jumped to clear some junk off an air vent.

"Shoot fire at it!" Adam ordered,

"Why?"
"Sterilization!" he stated as if it was obvious.

I had to remind myself that Adam was good with these types of situations. My natural leader/rebel instincts kept telling me to resist what he told me to do, mostly because it didn't make any sense. But then I have to remind myself that I knew next to nothing when it came to babies.

I nodded, and felt the warmth flood my arms and a jet a white hot flames engulfed the air vent, and the next thing I know the fire is out and Adam is cooling it down. After he lowered her to the vent, and we both moved to her sides.

"Ok, now deliver the baby." I ordered him,

He looked at me astonished

"I assumed you'd do it." He said,

"Why?"

"Because you have the fortune to have been born with two X chromosomes"

"And how does that make me an expert, your the one with medical experience!"

"Not in delivering babies!" he stated,

"Listen, I assumed you'd be more familiar with the equipment." He said, in a calmer tone, with a certain inflection that made me think he wasn't talking about machinery. And it all clicked,

"Oh." My witty response came out immediately,

"Well, I hate disappoint you but I failed my "All-women mandatory" Gynecology course, I'll try and do better next time."

He laughed, and moved to be in front of the woman's legs.

It was amazing, he never yelled. Not once in the entire event did he yell. He ordered me but he was so calm. It was scary. It was good, but scary. He didn't care. He was objective. He didn't want to get emotionally involved in the woman, and so he was amazing. But it was now, more than ever did I notice the fact he was different then me. He was less human. He wasn't as flawed, wasn't as biased.

He looked down, "Ok, Max now tell her."

"Tell her what?!?" I yelled panicking.

"Push!!"

"Oh, Push!!"

She screamed, and then she wasn't the only one.

Several sharp screams came from over by Adam, as he pulled up a red bloody baby in his arms.

"It's a girl." He said, and he quickly wrapped it in his jacket and handed the baby to her, and she smiled her face covered in sweat, her hair the same.

"Aww…"

After that we took her to a near by hospital, and she was taken away from us she asked me, "What's your name again?"

I calmly answered, "Max, Maximum."

She looked at her baby, and said, "Max." and she was carted away.

I felt Adam's cool arm wrap around my waist and we exited the building in silence.

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Max's POV

Outside of Mom's house

We walked across the grass to the front porch of the house I loved so much. It was my home away from home. Adam knocked on the door, and I saw Ella come out from around the other side of the house.

"Ella." I said loudly in happiness,

Just then the door opens.

I wanted to scream, but my instincts drove me.

I dove and swept Ella behind me and my 14 foot wingspan, before Adam could even yell, "You!" he yelled recognizing the Hunter mutant from the church, who responded with a hiss and a snarl. And it seemed as if everything stopped, I quickly realized something. We could fly away, but leave Ella to her death, to we could fight which would have either three result.

1. We kill the mutant

2. The mutant kills one of us and Ella and the other gets away, (This one was the most likely.)

3. The mutant kills us all.

Someone was going to die.

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A/N: Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukah, Happy Atheist day. .

No more chapter till after the holiday, sorry.

Please read & review.